Fanart, Fanfiction and Fangirling

It's already been a month since my last entry. My colleague is still on sick leave and just prolonged for another month. October is usually a quiet month for us, but this year we have 6 visits going on (luckily another colleague is helping, otherwise I'd be going crazy). Something might change in the not so distant future, but until I see it, I'm not going to believe it.

Other than that, I started thinking of this year's Advent Calendar. I don't think I'm gonna do a whole calendar like I did for the last few years, just the thought of writing 24 drabbles/ficlets makes me tired. But I'd still like to do something and I've actually already written a ficlet, so I'm thinking of just writing four, one for each Advent Sunday. I want it to be something fun, something I look forward to, not an additional source of stress. If I have the time and energy to write more, or draw something Christmas-related, all the better, but my goal right now is just those four.

Challenge #8

Talk about a current fannish project (fic, art, vid, crochet, funko pop village) (that you are creating or enjoying).



We're only halfway through January and I already have 4 new WIPs, 2 CSI and 2 Lupin III.

CSI

• A fluffy Nick/Greg ficlet inspired by this prompt.
  
  
• A Nick/Greg fic in which Nick comes out to Warrick.
  

Lupin III

• A Jigen-centric future fic inspired by the Jigen Daisuke film (apparently there are no fics related to that film on AO3? How is that possible?)
  
  
• A smutty Lupin/Jigen fic inspired by Jigen's Gravestone.
  

And of course there's still that Nick/Greg fic I've been working on for the last couple of years, one of my goals for 2024 is to finally finish it.

As for fanart, I haven't started working on my Lunar New Year illustration yet, but I've already looked up references. Like the last two years, it will be silly and feature Greg Sanders from CSI.

So, yeah, I have quite a lot going on at the moment. Let's see what I'll actually finish...

Challenge #3

In your own space, Scream Into the Void. Get it all out. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.



I'm going to whine a little today. Don't get me wrong: CSI has literally kept me sane during a very tough time and I'm extremely happy I discovered Nick/Greg fanfiction, I haven't been this productive in years. But, man, is it difficult being in a semi-dead fandom. New fics are very rare, and every time I post something on AO3, I typically get just a handful of kudos and maybe one comment. I'm so used to receiving minimal feedback that every time I get mote than that, or when I receive AO3 notifications, my smile is so big my face hurts afterwards. I'm grateful to each person who uses some of their time to read my stories, but I really miss fandom interaction. Maybe I'm just biased: I still remember the fun I used to have in some LJ communities years ago and I've been trying to find something similar, but I guess things are just too different now (nostalgic Millenial? Who, me?)

Anyway. Just before writing this entry I checked the Nick/Greg tag on AO3, just to prove my point and, lo and behold, someone posted a new podfic and a new fic! There might still be hope after all.

Challenge # 8

In your own space, celebrate a personal win from the past year: it can be a list of fanworks you're especially proud of, a gift of your time to the community, a quality or skill you cultivated in yourself, something you generally feel went well. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I think my biggest accomplishment of 2021, fandom-wise, was writing the 24 ficlets for the Nick/Greg Advent Calendar. I had written a Good Omens Advent Calendar in 2020 (I actually came up with the prompts myself for that one), but I didn't write anything for most of 2021, so I didn't think I would be inspired enough to do the same last year, but as soon as I saw the prompt list, I just knew it would work. It was an absolute joy writing those ficlets.

Non-fandom wise, I'm quite proud of the short story I wrote for a literary contest. It didn't get shortlisted for the "final round", but it was an interesting experiment and a challenge: I wanted to prove to myself I could do it, and I did. Yes, I was very disappointed when my story wasn't shortlisted but, hey, maybe I'll try again this year.

Did I say I would not "contribute actively to the CSI fandom"? Did I? Then why am I writing a Nick/Greg fic? *groans* For the moment I just have a couple of scenes, but they kept bugging me, so I just had to write them down to get them out of my head. Let's see if I can actually get a fic out of them.

The funny thing is, I'm supposed to focus on something else at the moment, not fanfiction and not even in English, but apparently once I start writing for something, another idea suddenly materialises, after months of no inspiration at all. Classic.

I also just found out that this autumn's DÄ tour has officially been cancelled. On the one hand I'm disappointed, because I was supposed to see them in Berlin on Halloween! How cool would that be? But I'm also relieved, as I wouldn't feel comfortable going to such a crowded concert in an indoors venue, but, knowing myself, I would've had an inner conflict about whether or not to go, because I'm just dying to see them live again.

Hopefully things will be better by next summer: I'm supposed to see them live at an open-air show, which I'm much more relaxed about. And it's at the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin! Just around the corner from where I lived in 2009/2010! I'm going to cry so, so much, I already know it...

Day 11

In your own space, talk about your creative process(es) — anything from the initial inspiration to how you feel after something’s done. Do you struggle with motivation or is it a smooth process? Do you have any tricks up your sleeve to pull out when a fanwork isn’t cooperating? What is your level of planning to pantsing/winging it? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

My creative process could be summed up in one word: slow. It usually takes me way too long to finish anything, unless it's a drabble or a short ficlet. I often start with just a scene or even a sentence in mind and build the story around it, so I don't have a clear idea of what's going to happen and sometimes the final story is quite different from the original idea. If I get stuck, I let the story rest (sometimes a few days are enough, sometimes it takes months!) and then go back to working on it. A few times I had to remove entire scenes in order to finish the story. It's not easy, especially if it's a scene I really like, but I've learned that sometimes such a "sacrifice" is necessary.

As for fanart, usually the first thing I do is looking up pose references, because I suck at drawing from memory and anatomy is not my forte. Sometimes I sketch something on paper and ink it on paper, sometimes I scan the sketch and ink/colour it in Photoshop, sometimes I draw the preliminary sketch directly in Photoshop.

As for how I feel when I'm done, it's a mix of satisfaction for finishing and anxiousness that the final product is not "good enough". Even when I'm happy with what I've written/drawn, there's always a lingering feeling of "What if there are typos, what if I forgot to draw a finger, what if..." every time I publish something.

I'm still (slowly) working on that Mystrade fic. I'll finish it one day, I promise. For the moment, I'll just share an LJ infographic that makes me sound ancient. XD

( Ah, the good old days... )

As if I weren't enough of a Mark Gatiss fangirl already:



We have the exact same views on the Catholic Church (30:15). Also, the 1984 reference (38:20) made me squee. And his voice, God, his voice.

This improved my mood immeasurably. Even if the ending was a bit disturbing, skip the last couple of minutes if you're squeamish (it's about STDs).

Also, I read a short Mystrade ficlet last night and this morning I woke up with part of a Mystrade ficlet already formed in my mind, which I immediately wrote down. Let's see if I can do something about it...

I don't remember if I mentioned it here, but a few months ago I collaborated with a group of people who were working on a web series. When I attended the summer workshop in LA two years ago I met an Italian girl who was attending another workshop, we kept in touch and last year she contacted me, told me about this project and asked me if I wanted to help with the screenplay. I mostly had to "supervise" things, i.e. make sure there weren't mistakes, check for consistency issues, make suggestions to improve dialogues etc.

The "premiere", so to speak, was on Friday night in Mantua, a town a couple of hours away from where I live. It was nice to finally meet the people I had worked with. Also, I was shocked to see my name listed among the screenwriters! They did say my name would appear in the credits, but I thought it would be something like "The production would also like to thank...", I really wasn't expecting that.

It's a low-budget project and my input was limited, I only worked on it in my free time, but it was a great experience and I think the final result is really good. The episodes will be uploaded in the next days/weeks, here's the trailer. English subtitles should be available soon.



Also, I checked my Twitter timeline and saw this:



And Happy Easter to you too, Mr. Gatiss. XD

I... may have written a Sherlock fic. But I'm NOT going to post it now. It takes place during The Sign of Three, so it would make sense posting it before His Last Vow, but not now, a couple of hours before the episode is aired.

It's just a ficlet, but writing again feels so good, even if it's just a very short story. I've had this idea stuck in my head the whole week, but I just couldn't find the right words. And then today everything just sort of fell into place. Hopefully I'll still like it tomorrow.